Week 1 of lifting

I just finished one week of adding weights to my routine. I actually started a week ago today and since I had Monday off I did weights Tuesday and Thursday this week even though my routine for lifting is going to be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

I've increased my squat weight to 75lbs. Lateral pulls are at 70 lbs. I'm also doing none weighted lower back extensions and abdominal lifts, which I really do not like and I think I'm swapping that out for bench pressing starting next week. I figure I feel my abs working when I squat and do lateral pulls. I was doing them because someone suggested them, I could care less now. Maybe I'll do them later. I just hate that I'm all sweaty and I keep slipping from the pads.

I weighed in today. Let me tell you I am not happy about it. I went up almost 4lbs!!! I felt so defeated. I know I didn't do the greatest with my eating this week. I went over my 1750 limit a few times but I don't think it was enough to gain 4lbs. This is what I really dislike about lifting 3 days a week. You can't really track how many calories you burn so I feel like I'm not doing any good for myself and plus I'm hungrier and go over my calorie intake! At least with doing the elliptical I knew I was burning something and ate some calories back so I wouldn't feel so damn hungry.

I did measure myself this morning though. That was a surprise. I lost inches all over, waist, hips, thighs and arms. I don't know how accurate that is since I measured this morning vs in the evening. Does that make a difference? I'll keep measuring in the mornings. I'm taking a picture tomorrow and comparing it to the first one I took 6 weeks ago. I'll continue doing lifts for three more weeks. If I don't see progress I might just kick it to the curb. It feels very defeating when you don't lose any weight. Maybe if I continue to lose inches I'll feel better.

The girls on MFP say it's normal and I should just focus on my measurements and not at the number on the scale. I've been weighing myself every day the last couple of weeks. I want to see how much my weight really does fluctuate especially around the time of the month. There was one day, I didn't log it in MFP where I had lost another pound, I was at my lowest ever in a long time on that day but now I'm up.

This is very frustrating.

Motivations

I've been working out for the past 4 weeks now. It's amazing to be able to say that. This is my fourth week of exercising 5 days a week. My workouts consist of three things:

1. 35 minutes on the elliptical
2. push ups
3. squats

So far there have been very few days where I've had to drag myself to the gym. Yesterday was one of those days. My normal routine is to hit the gym then work. Yesterday I had to work then hit the gym at 5pm. It sucked. I was tired by then and my co-workers were heading out to a bar for drinks. I knew I definitely did not want to go out for drinks but I was really wishy washy on wanting to hit the gym.  I forced myself to go. I was not happy going or while working out and I felt it. My workout on the elliptical was tiring and I just wanted to get it over with.

This morning on the other hand I hit the gym and did pretty good. I didn't get as tired as I did yesterday, I did break a sweat but I felt good. I have to say, I'm really proud of myself for coming this far. I really do like working out on my own. I set my own pace and I don't feel like I'm being held back. My driving motivation right now is the fact that I listen to audio books while working out. Only while working out. Which means if I want to find out what happens next I need to hit the gym or go for a walk home. So far I've been pretty good and doing that and it's kept me moving at least 5 days a week. I'll go for long morning walks on the weekends at home, just to hear the next juicy bit of audio book. Now that the weather is nice, I might hit the gym during the day and then go for a walk when I get home. We'll see how that goes.

I don't know how much I weigh right now. I dumped my scale almost two weeks ago. Then I found myself digging the damn thing out of the closet to weight myself. So I asked my husband to hide it from me. So now it's really dumped. I have no idea where it is and I have no intention of finding it. I have to weigh in soon, just to see where I'm at and to keep a decent estimate on calorie burn when I work out. I might ask him to bring it out for me this weekend. I'm looking forward to weighing in. I'm hoping to have some kind of loss. That will really help with my motivation.

We had a couple of friends come over for dinner on Friday and they noticed I had lost weight. Granted they haven't seen me in months so they would notice a difference even though I might not see it yet. I've been taking photos. Maybe I'll post them one day.